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A Hard Decision

Both my soulmate Joe and I have been accused of working way too much, bordering on workaholism. The problem is that we loved our work so much, we couldn’t decide what was work and what was play. Taking time off was something hard to do for each of us. We made a pact that in a particular year, we were going to take a significant vacation. That brought up one of our big differences. My husband is social person, a risk taker and loves lots of excitement. I am reflective, need more alone time and quite private. At first we had discussions, then debates and then arguments about where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do.

Like many people, we had an emergency fund (should we need it). Two things happened. Our disagreeing became more intense and a brochure arrived in the mail for a trip “around the world”. We looked at each other and declared an emergency and signed up for 37 countries that included everything we both wanted to do. We felt “our emergency” had come. It was a life changing event.

What we learned is that we could never again afford that kind of trip, our health might not be able to handle that trip again, some countries are no longer safe to travel to and we could save for that “emergency fund” again. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. It was full of culture, risk, fun, adventure, love, intimacy and connection. It took us three months in a small room on a cruise ship. We connected with people all over the world and especially with each other.

“I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”
~ Diane Ackerman